The View’s Sunny Hostin Challenges Nikki Haley to Explain Racist Country Comments: ‘I’ll Be Happy to Chat With Her!’

The co-hosts of ABC’s The View have offered up an invitation to GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley — if you want the airtime to explain yourself, it’s yours.

After coming in third in the Iowa caucus, former UN Ambassador Haley did an interview with Fox News and made the claim that America “has never been a racist country.” That earned her a ton of blowback just ahead of the New Hampshire primary, especially after her previous failure to cite slavery as the cause of the Civil War. Despite that, she still danced around the issue during Thursday’s CNN town hall.

The co-hosts of The View were not quite ready to give Haley the benefit of the doubt, to say the least, but during their first segment on Friday’s show, a few of them stepped up to defend Haley as a better alternative to former President Donald Trump. And they also offered up their platform, the same way they offered it up to Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday:

Sara Haines: I don’t vote in these Republican primaries, but I’m to the point that we’re doing no one a favor by ripping apart every option if Trump is the true enemy, which I which I wish they would come out and say because she has no shot at being in his administration. She also is not, actually, should not be pandering to MAGA. They don’t want her. They will not vote for her. Aside from the color of her skin, her beliefs are old-school conservative. She’s not a populist, MAGA person. So I wish she’d stop doing that at this point.

Ana Navarro: But you’re saying that we shouldn’t rip them apart. Should we just let her say that America has never been a racist country? Should we just let [Florida Gov.] Ron DeSantis —

Haines: No — inaccuracies, misstating the Civil War, come for her. But at this table, it’s often been talked about, “Well, Trump’s going to win anyway. Never mind. And she’s this.” She is a lesser evil to me. So no matter what she is, I think also giving proper airtime to not deciding, before people have voted, it’s just going to be Trump.

Navarro: Maybe we should give her the same airtime we gave Kamala Harris. If she wants to come here, and she wants to explain why America has never been [racist], we welcome her.

Sunny Hostin: Oh, I’d be happy to chat with her!

Co-host Joy Behar, however, was skeptical, and said: “She’s not coming.”

Watch the video above via ABC.